Do you rem this guy?

He used to be my favorite cartoon to sketch!!!

this one was too tempting to not put up!!!

of iconic architecture and cities...

This one: Minneapolis (out of the blue from a trip last sem)

take your pick...


the shouting cantilever of the 'guthrie theatre' by Jean Nouvel?



or the shimmer of the 'walker art center' by Herzog and de Meuron

Though I love the other work of Jean Nouvel, visiting the Walker was a greater experience than the Guthrie

... and now back home...

... to good old ann arbor!!!

of solitude in chicago

Do you have a favorite store that never dissapoints?

... I do ... GAP...there has never been a single time that I haven't walked out of GAP store happy ( except for the thanksgivin sale where the sadness is cos of the number of people there)

But Gap it is... not only the collection but price too!!!

E X P R E S S
is by far my favorite store though... I think there is not a single style or design at express which I haven't liked till date... incidently even their store design.

But only place where express disappoints is the 'price'...
...its so freaking nice...

I come out happy but broke in case I pick up something :)

of personal traits...

1. My absent mindedness/ forgetfulness is gettin worse by the day- this week among a thousand small things, two that stand out

-i went for a day to himani's place and forgot my computer charger there...well that is a huge deal since I was almost paralyzed on the work front once my comp battery died down hadnt it been for my data on the college server.

- I left a nice stack of portfolio paper down at the print shop in school... n they r closed for the break... and so am i out of town for the break for a good ten days
:(

(nothing has beaten the forgettin car and walking home story...hopefully never will)

2. this one is to my 'panda' buddies. I am beginning to feel nauseated
with the smell of 'panda express' food too..everytime I walk down that corridor I feel like gettin out of there really quick. I feel bad..cos I used to love that food so much. I guess I shall have someone pack the food for me and eat it some place else - make sure my tastebuds get readjusted to the 'junk chinese' i loved so much

so this one seems like a useless post...highly personal and totally contextual...

My apologies to readers who r out of the context..

What matters...

... you having faith in yourself?

...or you having none but everyone else havin faith in you?

flowers i love

...are they cared for?

...and now it is in black and white...

CNN money features architecture as second ranked under " big jobs that pay badly'"
hahaha...

all our cribbing is in black and white listed among the few careers where time and money invested to qualify for a position is disproportionately high to the pay

it is so encouraging right now!!!!

Friday night out

Friday nightout: venue: Zingerman's road house and Ashleys!!!
Special attention mom dad: my new hair cut :)



zingerman's roadhouse. i really like goin to this restaurant.




our cheese platter



of goodtimes!!!



nathalie and abby joined us later...

My latest aquisition.

yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... the black i-pod nano... its is sooooo cute!!!

Classics... at the Sir J.J CoA

browsing through old pics... memories of good times... meaning less afternoons at the studio... fooling around at study trips... late nights at marine drive... studying sessions at namu's house... long hours of doing nothing at the LCR, whiling away time amidst the greens oof the workshop!!!

scanned images of our times in undergrad!!!

Rang de Basanti

Rang de Basanti is sure a must see...

and not for one reason but several...

the starcast
the storyline
the cinematography
the actors... aamir khan rocks no doubt.. but this siddharth(playing karan) takes the cake ... n to top it he is hot too
the presentation and narration
the music
...almost everything ( discount the length of the movie though)

the thought... rise for one's cause..doesnt matter who you are... if u believe u shall... n how!!!

i am gonna have to stop here ... cos I have been warned not to say much by gav since he hasnt seen the movie yet ..so i shall be an obedient girl!!! but if you havent seen a good hindi movie in a while, here is one which that wont disssapoint.

in the first half for sure..second half wasnt appreciated by all as much though i love it.

update

life has pretty much been ordinary since I got back from Bombay... it feels like been put into heaven for a few days n then brought back to hell... nothing excitig happening off late on my front except the weekend of Sameer's birthday with gav chanda n sameer. went to the detroit auto show..shall post some pictures.. i liked it.

the cars were nice n all..but i really liked the sets. i couldnt help but notice people glaring at me when they caught me clicking details of the set designs when every camera was focused on those cars... i think i even embarrased gaurav on that front once:)

its friday evening. i am in school.thts a good thing... but not a good thing when i realise its just the beginning of the semester. looking forward to an intense semester.


hope to join my friends for dinner at TGIF in a couple of hours!!!

SLEEEEEEEEEPPPPP is all i want

...so my sem ended last evening.

... i finally got home way before the routine 4-5 am.

... i slept for 9 + hours... n still feeling sleepy!!!

... at this moment i wish i could sleep in the afternoons. sleep is on my mind and on my eyes but i just cant get my self to sleep in the middle of the day. so annoying. n thats why the 'crib filled' blog at 2.30pm

of good times

Amidst the whole craziness of work and the excitement of goin back to India soon is something which I really feel sad about... and what else but change most affects the human mind.

As I see Niki getting ready to leave..her packing all around the house it is suddenly sinking in that what 'family' was for the past one n half years is not gonna be the same.

I am not goin to shy away from saying that I am really gonna miss her and it is affecting me in many ways.

N then in a way I am glad about that cos that means the ability to miss people and not accepting change easily is still with me. Thought I was losing it!!!

So this ones to all the good times in the past one n half year!!!

K's frustrated?

May be a stupid question but I have always wondered does a good designer have to be a good craftsman? are the abilties of designing representating well enough to convey and capacities to get something crafted enough to complete his definion? does his capacity to himself execute the act have to be included to complete the definition?

I personally belong to the first category

The way my work has shaped in the last few months made me realise sitting on the drawing board or in front of fancy softwares and desiginging/representing/working out something is sure an exercise but not a complete one: the amount of thought and time in execution is a surely one hell of a task.. i wonder how it is to understand someone elses work and execute it.

Maybe as an archtiect I wont necessarily need the prowess of execution in the longer run...hopefully once my academic life(as a student ofcourse) is over.
Does that apply to more pure yet applied forms of art...scuplture, jewellery, fashion etc?

all this will i am trying hard to float on the surface and not drown in the work load... waiting for the month end:)

Stress is in the air

Everyone around me looks completely harrowed and stressed out..wonder why..its tht last lap of the semester... 3 weeks to go.

there is joy of only three weeks to go and then there is realisation in tht very minute about the amount of work to be done in those three weeks.

somehow i feel my fittest best when i am stressed and i know i hv loads of work to get done... i like that pleasure in pain feeling!!! :)

...and it shall last!!!

Its been a while since I have put up anything. sometimes cos I didnt have time, sometimes cos I didnt feel like... but its that time of the year which you just cannot miss...

once again I look out to a white blanket. I know it'll last for long..but its just so pretty right now.

Standing in the snow for two hours this morning was no fun...

but gettin back to the warmth... its so different this time... :)

"When we finally kissgoodnight

How I'll hate going out in the storm!

But if you'll really hold me tight

All the way home I'll be warm

The fire is slowly dying

And, my dear, we're still goodbying

But as long as you love me so

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"

of cravings

I crave right now...


1.to be at home and eat sabudana khichdi or pohe for breakfast!!!... am sick of a waffle and cereal breakfast
2.for shoppin in bombay... so so so so very badly right now
3.for junk food off the streets( hmm almost)... pani puri and spring dosa!!! and oily chinese!!! aaahhh
4.for an i-pod
5.and a new digi cam...

its funny how the list progressively changed to the materialistic

INDIAAAAAAAAA...AAAAAH

ok i just blogged a few minutes ago... but I so have to write this right now. (so read the previous one first to get the link)

i came back form the 'bombay exhibit' in the gallery space...


just to remind u that the exhibit was in ' an architecture school' and not any part gallery or soemthing...

the contents of the exhibit....

1. tandoori chicken and samosa...both deformed... but a great attempt!!!
2. monsoon wedding being screened on a tv
3. bunty aur bubli being screened on a tv
4. a video about the squatters and random people walkin on the road
5. several sarees.... hanging form the top
4. pottery and mirror work and other 'artifacts'...which u as a 'foreigner' just cannot skip on colaba causeway
5. chappals and junk jewellery sold by the same guy outside mondy's(cafe mondegar) for 1/10th of the price that shamli and I used to buy it for.

So how many of you think the entire essence of India was captured? well thats not easy a task... but still!!!

Overheards " oh isnt that THE BIG SUPER MALL"... thats about 'crossroads'..didnt we leave that one behind ages ago?

" 'bombay store'... I loved that place... have never seen anythin more beautiful ..blah blah.. "

and finally wine... i dont knowwhere that came from..may be desi daru would have been a better fit...

Well that was about what was on display..am not gonna be judgemental about this scenario..but am extreemly amused to say the least!!!

only one thing kept ringing in my ears... this audio I had heard on "INDIAAAAA" in a sultry trying to be deeeep voice describing India some many years ago... it was as though the whole exhibit was shouting out the samething to me in that exact same voice.

A declaration and concern

I have to admit that about two weeks ago my blogs were becomin more and more depressing leaving a lot of people wondering as to whats goin on...i think i finally figured it out today...
what i would call the architect's version of the 'writer's block'...

i was gettin bogged down so much so that I began to even debate my career choice... i was more than over worked but was just not happy with what was comin out of it...maybe i was pushin myself too hard!!!

I am never satisfied with my work is a given... but this was a completely different feelin ... and am so glad am out of it now.

it was a feelin of being at the completely wrong place... but I guess like all other things this one too fell in place... and I know as a 100 percent track record that every architect goes thru this 'feeling' and that too frequently... anyway thats tht.

there is wierd korean couple in the desk behind me right now....the wife keeps squeekingly complaining about every damn thing it seems like.. wierd noises is all i can gather of the whole scenario behind my back

another thing which is on my mind off late is this overdose of 'exotic india' 'incredible india' imagery which is floating in my school...thanks to atleast a dozen out of 80 people having visited bombay-delhi-agra in the past 5 months... and yelling out the word 'bombay' in the studio in that oh so typical accent atleast a dozen times in the day.

i am glad and sad too... glad about the awareness yes... but its all the same old redundant awareness...

of exotic sadhus,oh so pretty fabrics,(these fake silk sarees are hanging down in the corridor and people who are not meant to look nice in salwar khameez' are wearing jsut that) homelessness, diversity( in costume?), chat and blah blah...

i totally agree that its a great thing that these guys are gettin exposed to the 'contemporary indian culture' but why yet in the 'exotic india way?' why dont we just project the image of a real contemporary india....

whtever... i am goin to hog on the 'bombay food' apparently which is a part of the exhibit.

Happy Diwali

an eventful weekend just passed by...away from books and work and studio...

and loads of fun!!!

it all began with a girls evening out to 'dominicks'... sangria time!!! followed by an unsuccesful attempt tht evening to watch iqbal...ending up in a round of truth or dare..or rather truth and truth...hadnt played that game for yrs...

a lazy saturday morning... brunch on 'zingerman's' sandwiches...its one of my favorite places in ann arbor.
the afternoon was well spent watching 'fight club'...i dont know why I hadnt seen such a wondeful movie yet!

Halloween party time on Saturday evening.... at the 'heidelberg'- followed by witnessing some pumpin carving and falling asleep to ghost stories!!!

Sunday was the most eventful day of all though.... it was 'our wine- n dine-' ' diwali-halloween-id' party... characterised by an exotic meal we cooked for ourselves coupled with a variety of yummy wines!!!! it would be a sin to not post pics of this party.... so a picture post coming up soon.

As promised...

...ignore the straight face and dark circles... thts cos of a cumulative of 10 hours of sleep over 4 nights!!!

but I love that feelin of exhaustion due to intense work.. that strain on the eyes...the anticipation of a sound sleep... it all resonates 'satisfaction'- especially when the work has been fun and stimulating...

getting more specific... when u think you design and thought is finally getting somewhere where you want it to go.

Random Moi

The week rushed by almost at the speed of light.

The weather is changing.... its become awfully cold already!!! the trees are at their prettiest best... changing color by the hour!!!

Was a heavy week so far at school... mid term exams and couple of reviews.

Diwali is round the corner... i totally miss the ritual of 'diwali' shopping... i think I shall try and not break the tradition:)

I already have a wish list though..if anyone volunteering to obidge I shall disclose my 'gifts wanted' list.

I went and got my self a hair cut this evening... not anything drastic...i like it... will post a picture as soon as I take one.

So much for the ramble...hope I have something worthwhile to contribute soon!!!

REFRESHED

So none of my wishes obviously came true...fall break is over n am back in AA...

but feel totally refreshed... didnt get much work done over the weekend.

I dont regret it at all though...

shall work harder in the coming weeks!!!

Making a wish

... for fall break to never get over...

... for all my ties in ann arbor be brought to me here in Champaign...

...the feeling of feeling at home to last forever...


SELFISH ME!!! hahahaha!!!

Designer= expensive?

Why is something that can be remotely qualified as good architecture for a home always unaffordable?

Recently a friend of mine looking for a new house called me up all excited about buying a new house in some suburb here- to my surprise she was talking about a nice contemporary minimalist'ish' looking LoFt...well out of the conventional real-estate ugly lookin developers realm...

I myself was completely excited about it!!!
but just yesterday I heard the plan fizzled out... cos the Loft turned out to be more expensive for the size and place ocmpared to rest of mediocrity floating all around.

I just feel bad how a 'designer' label shoots up the cost of every thing right from a small piece of clothing, jewellry, furniture or even a house!!! :(

PLACES

Have you ever looked down upon the stars?

I loved the feeling of flying in a tiny plane...on my flight from Detroit to Champaign... this lil plane which didn’t fly very high in the sky...told me a new story... a story of density- told not by people or by landscape but by the lights... the lights which shimmered at intervals... suddenly gathering close... indicating life... suddenly sparse- when away form civilization. Streaks of light...just like comets... in reality vehicles on the road!!! Flying as an act is one that brings about disconnection of the highest degree to me... but this one still kept me close to civilization...at least visually... as was so much fun.. .as i derived a whole new story from what I saw of everyday life... but just from a different perspective and a different actor telling the story....

So I am in Champaign on my fall break... YIPPPEEE!!!!

I have been on this major travel spree... last weekend our studio went to Minneapolis for a field trip. It was a lot of work but AWESOME fun!... the high light being seeing a Herzog de Meuron ( the walker arts center), a Jean Nouvel(Guthrie theatre), Raplh Rapson work...and actually meeting him in person... was so great to see an absolute modernist of his time(91 today)... Also visited a Saarinen church and saw one more Gehry building- don’t know how I feel about that one though. My flickr has pictures of Minneapolis!!! (People less but a feast for the eye). I liked the city. Is a small big city yet holding on to its character!

The week before that was also characterized by day trips in various parts of Michigan and Ohio...so essentially in the past 3 weeks I have visited four mid-western states- Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Minnesotta coupled with tons of work at school too and a couple of party scenes adding to the drama!

Happy Dassera

Chocolate party

I am entertaining myself a little in the middle of a long reading... a visual treat.. pics from the chocolate party last thursday.

YUMMY ISNT IT? look at all the greedy souls waiting for the picture taking part to get over fast and get to the real thing.

YIPPEEEE

a boring day.. or rather week..or month... filled with work just got livened up with a nice 'lemony' surprise...
i loved the feeling of seein a parcel note at my door step - least expecting it..n then even better when u see a NICE BIG packet... labelled GAP on it...

so welcome fall... with my bright yellow fall jacket!!! thanks g!!!

Whats up ?

The weather is changing and fall is just around the corner.... suddenly in a day trees around are beginning to change color.

life for me right now is pretty colorless... nothin much but work happening!!!
n I am suffering from 'withdrawal symptoms' of not having much to do over summer.. n thus in a a 'cribby' mood about everyhing around.

To liven up my mood I put up some pics of some tp models we made in studio... I liked the pics only!!!

N i feel like cribbing about absolutely everythingggggg.

N i feel better already

Isnt it wonderful to see those streaks of light sharply cutting through a series of cluds after a rain shower..i feel the same right now

as the weather took this turn today so did my mood ...

My previous blog was absoultely gloomy n i felt sad... so why the mood change... i just saw the brighter side of a few things i cribbed about in my prev blog-

N what helped- some thinking on my own n lotsa pampering!!! doesnt tht always work!!!

N everything seems wrong!!!

Studio lottery happens at the beginning of every term... u get to choose the prof. u wanna work under for the whole semester after seeing a series of presentations by various profs....u rank them in terms of ur preference, n as rumor goes u generally get your first or second choice n trust me ... of all the six presentations... i didnt even like one

they all sucked so bad this time...

none was worth while!!!

N to my misery I have got my third choice... aaah!!!! has got something to do with 'design-build' i dont like design-build at all!!! :( .. i dont know how i am gonna survive through this

so thts my first reason to sulk!!!

My comp is not workin for the past three days n is in the process of gettin back to life..

so thts my second reason to sulk!!!

The other course that I HAVE to take this semster are boring core courses... aaaahhhh...

so my third reason to sulk leaves me with almost nothing to look forward to on the work front!!!

This post is a warning and a request... to people around me to forgive me if u find me sulkin n grumpy all the time...
( the concerned party am sure has already foreseen the temper tantrums)

Coming Back to Life

So summer is over and its time for classes tomorrow.

I didnt have any plans for Labor Day weekend but with Gaurav having visited it was a lotttt of fun!!!

We managed to do quite a few things over the weekend here in Ann Arbor...the weather having blessed us all too!!!

N now the party seems to be all over!!!

Check my flickr account for lotsa new snaps.

its me blabbering

the weather for the past couple of days has been the best ever in AA

summer is almost over n school begins next week

u cannot take any relationship for granted

it is difficult when someone u care for suddenly says its not necessary to understand everything thts going on.

its worse when u r made to feel tht a friendship is governed only by ur acts!!!

Restlessness is the biggest enemy of the state of mind

I had a nice bonus weekend in UIUC

the labor day weekend is round the corner n many have elaborate plans... i dont have many!!!

I have missed home like never before... for reasons I dont understand

its been the year of engagements n marraiges...all most all my friends are ready to tie the knot. thts prob what happens when u r 25.

it sucks the most when u know what you want n just cant get it right now.( this seemslike an almost 'all time' case)

enough of non-sense. this post has been my most non-specific n useless one ever.

i promise to do better from now on

Its exactly a year today since I left home for Ann Arbor!!!

Happy Independence Day

58 years and it already feels like so long ago...

Has the country gotten over the Colonial raj torture so easily?

or has it simply moved on for good?

Anyway Happy Indepedence Day India

Photos

I suddenly had too many photos from this trip to put on my blog..so i finally decided to get a flickr account and put up a link to all my pictures... find it on the bottom left hand corner of my blog.

As an architect by profession n like some people say most of my pictures are 'peopleless'...of structures n places, I have also put up a few pictures of people.

1.NYC

So New York is to the USA what Mumbai is to India... minus a few things and plus a many more things.

the last two days have been extremely busy!!! not with work but in NYC!!! the city is huge; fast; dirty; crowded; dazzling; selfish; difficult; addictive;...n so much more!!! It did amaze me... but not quite.

I want to write to so much more but I am exhausted from a really long long day of train n ferry rides,lots n lots of walking...n greattt places visited!!!

I am sure my next few blogs to come will be pictures of NYC...so I shall leave this for later n just go to sleep after a realllyy tiring yet funfilled day!!!

a side note...bombay has almost everything tht new york offers... but bombay as a city does not know how to sell itself.its as selfish as new york is but we just havent gone all the way to shout out TIMES SQUARE

I do like new york. n i feel one cannot compare NYC n Chicago...more on this later too. me dozing off!!!

A bonus day in Chicago- dated 8th Aug 05

Us and the skyline reflecting in the bean-designed by Anish Kapoor at the millenium park, Chicago



On magnificent mile...

I feel sad!!!

the hoarding in the background says...'time for buying a new home?'
... as though they anticipated the fate of mumbai in times to come... the picture surely indicates buying new cars for the owners of these submerged vehicles!!!

Sketch-Up

My past couple of blogs have been some of my favorite pictures... n this one surely fits into the list!!!

Its one of those sketch-up images of RIA and I taken at the food mall on the mumbai-pune expressway!!!

Nostalgia2; Friday night fun; n Viruddha

this is one of my favourite pictures of the four of us... taken last year on my birthday... the date is screwed up for some reason.

comin back to the present...the weekend till now turned out to be quite eventful!!!

Parag's graduation... Dr. Parag now; - was celebrated on Friday evening by going to 'california pizza kitchen' then bowling n then some chattin n lil drinking in 3036- sleeping eventually at 3 am- resulting into an absoultely lazy saturday... only managing to get out of the house at 8.30pm when we all went for

Viruddha...
On the whole I would say its a nice movie. but a little unreasonably bollywood at times. Amitabh's performance and some good scenes surely deserve a mention.(But he doesnt look maharashtrian one bit!) Anushka Dandekar was a pleasant surprise. John Abraham- wasted. Sharmila Tagore was not bad too. The movie has the potential to come out as a bold film with a strong plot n narration; but it just seems to have lost focus on quite a few nodes leavin it unconvincing at quite a few places.

Nostalgia

I found this pic on my comp today... just remembering the fun times on all the weekend pune trips...

This one was the july 04 before I left for Ann Arbor last year.

Hope we all get back together soon!!!

a random me!!!

The names shall remain undisclosed but the concerned individual(S)
shall realise what this is about

How would you feel if your best friend suddenly has a 'new' friend .. who is exposing him to all 'stupid cute things' that friends apparently do for friends... n my dear friend doesnt seem to be uncomfortable with the extra dose of mush?

Anyway the point being out of experience I truly believe that the most deceptive n short lived relationships are the ones where one gets too close too fast!!!

I hope thou shall remember that!!!

its raining back home

In the past few years I dont remember such a heavy downpour having disrupted daily life in bombay so much that people are forced to just be in the place where they are... I just got a call from home only to learn that the rains have just taken over the city completely... my dad my sis n whole of his office including little ria who happened to just visit the office this afternoon are stuck at the workplace for the night thanks to knee deep water outside the office... and no trains for the staff to go home.


no electricity at home!!!! aaaaah!!!!

But sitting away right now I do miss the madness that the rains in Mumbai always bring along...

Ann Arbor Art Fair

The Ann Arbor Art fair is held every year in the month of July.. its a huge street festival which extends almost all of downtown Ann Arbor.



A plethora of artists' works from all over the country and some from abroad too display their art work... both for appreciation and sale (which one cant surely think of right now atleast)

I liked some of the exhibits... especially in the category of sculpture, photography and glass!!!







I love street fairs n festivals.. i love the energy that is present in these public spaces... it just shows how much people mean to a place!!! On my first visit to the art fair I was sad that all these wonderful pieces of art were exhibited only in plain white tents... just making the fair a monotonous walk not exciting enough for the common man... but when I went there the second time on a Friday evening... the people, their movement, their acitivty, their energy, random performances, food and ofcourse the commercial aspect of art..where they sold popular items (clothes, jewellery, books etc) for cheaper than usual did surely give me the feel of Bazaar street... but ofcourse nothing like the life which is born out of our streets in Mumbai ... Mohammed Ali road, Colaba Causeway, D.N.Road, Linking Road,Hill road, .. they are cultures in them selves!!!! and all year round mind you!!!! ( yes yes I cannot get bombay out of my head)


N thats why I feel sad when I see people craving for such culture, character .. n trying to 'create' them in their public space... I told one of my professors the other day that this art fair was too organised and just not chaotic enough for my liking!!!

But nevertheless it is surely a treat to see the whole place transformed the way it did for four days and get back to normal as I walked on the same streets today as though nothing ever happened. I really had a lot of fun!!!! And extremely remarkable to see how well co-ordinated the whole event was!!!

Manchester Chicken Broil

On Thursday evening we headed out to a village called Manchester, half an hour from Ann Arbor... on the third thursday of July every year they host the
Manchester Chicken Broil... so each of us had

1/2 chicken grilled
raddish
coleslaw
bread
n chips

the picture gives u the detailed info.

Apparently every year the number of people visiting this village this evening is seven times the number of people living in the village.

A question

This relationship of the old to the new is inevitable… it has to exist in order to make a successful architecture… in order to have cities rich in character!!! I don’t like Singapore. What makes Euope interesting? An amalgamation of its rich cultural past and its present showing the promise of a great future…

It is a shame how in India we either completely disregard our past and aim to ape the west under the pretext of globalization giving into faceless glass blocks in our failed attempt to not let go off the past reproduce or rather ‘try’ to reproduce the glory of the past.

We don’t want a Shanghai or a Singapore. Neither do we want just a Taj Mahal to be iconic of our built environment for several years. Can we have a Bilbao?

Do we have an answer?

To begin with can u think of one contemporary building in India iconic of our times?


(this one was written a ew days ago.. just put it up now.. doesnt make any sense to me right now thou. i ll put it up anyway)

The Law Library and Angel hall are two buildings chosen together primarily for the reason that one of them already has an existing extension to it and a proposal for the extension of the other .

What interests me is how these extensions though are absolutely manifestations of the contemporary sit well within the existing setting... complementing but not overpowering nor overshadowed by the existing buildings.

This brought me to an interesting thought. Isn’t it more challenging to design around the existing and also adaptive reuse ? A complete ‘tabula-rasa’ has nothing exciting about it all right?

I love the way how both these new extensions stand out for themselves, do not have direct symbolic reference of their parent buildings.

Law Library




reflecting in the new!



distorting the old?


an interior view

Angel Hall




The existing!!!



Extension to art museum by Angel Hall... the acrylic case of the model spoilt the image.

Art n Architecture Building

Summer is probably the only time when one can peacefully walk around in ann arbor not worrying about getting into an enclosed space to get away from the cold…

So I thought I could do something worthwhile n post pictures of Ann Arbor over my next few posts

To begin with it shall be a partial picture of the TCAUP-the Art and Architecture Building

The next in line would be the Angel Hall and Law Quad...

Just a thought!!!

out of the blue...

Are you an outright pessimist?

Or an absolute optimist?

I SO am a pessimist... I would go ahead n proclaim that IT IS the thing that drives me the most... I cannot appreciate optimism for more than a minute...

but Now I shall tell you why that worked for me... cos my boy friend is an ABSOLUTE OPTIMIST... I know I can think speak n almost live negative cos my betterhalf will surely surely point out the brighter side to me ...even if its just to make me feel nice!!!

Ah yes.. n the optimism works for him probably too cos I am always sittin on his head to curb it the next moment!!!

lazyhead

I am back from Mumbai... N i dont feel like blogging...

trying hard to think of something to write about.

I got to ann arbor after a unexpectedly long journey characterised by delayed flights n long long waits.

coming back to the US meant a completely different note this time...

an amazing feelin to meet gaurav here in ann arbor and show him around my school and the lovely cozy town.

the weekend was loads of fun at mackinaw island with himani sameer and gaurav... the mackinaw bridge is beautiful... the city quaint... and the island very european... the lake a lovely blue and extremely cold!!!

other highlights of the weekend...watchin charita's weddin cd with 'family' here..:) and cookin with gav for the first time ever!!!

now back to ann arbor n feelin extremely lazy to do anything at all!!!

Apple

NO, this one's not about an i-pod!

Its about a restaurant called apple in Bandra... we went there for dinner today

archit pd, sonu abhay, mehul n i!!!

Inspite of being one of those 'ambient lighting, fancy furniture, poor concept,' pseudo interiors... desparetly trying to create an identity, the food was good- continental; n a good bar and for some reason an unlimited supply of bread rolls with flavored dips!!!

They have a cake shop too called 'apple cake'; kartik claims that it is as good as oven fresh..but i dont agree one bit!!! i strongly believe 'ovenfresh' has the best pastries and desserts in mumbai!

Though u know the funny part about this restaurant 'apple' was- they had an apple kept on every table (reminded me of that funny short story from darna mana hain); n for some reason they put apple in our drinks- sangrias!!!

sangria is actually cold drink made out of wine with brandy, fruit juice and soda right? for some reason this one had wine- tequlla-vodka water n apple pieces!!!
(or so he said-cos the alcohol seemed to be almost missing)

Do u miss that breeze?

A gush of wind
A moment of happiness

Fading away
Bringing upon a sudden sadness

Searching for that wind again
Searching for that moment

Will it ever come again?
Will it last?

Longing to be in its arms
Looking for answers to questions it left behind!

Do I wish that moment shouldnt have happened at all?
Do I wish I can forget it all?
DO I wish I can move on ?
Do I wish to be where I am?

Its red again!

Once again I colored my hair red!!!

But this time its so different

Reasons:

1. I no longer have straightened hair ... its wavy now
more like the shabby look or as i call it ' the bhangi look'...which I was longing for!!!

2. The red is so much more brighter RED ... (the last time it was wella...those colors are mild; this time its l'oreal... those are brighter n deeper apparently)

N why red again?
copper n bronze i thought were too mild.
blue n purple.. i didnt dare to go all the way!!!
So I settled for the red!!! I fear its too 'jhatak' itself thou!

I am not sure if both of the above are things to be happy about!!!

Cos i really dont know if the previous color n style looked better!!! but who cares!!!

But yes I shall wait for reactions n then decide!!!

Do u feel better now?

Just felt like staring at something that makes me feel happier and lighter...

Blue is surely not a happy colo(U)r

N so The CHANGE!!!

Whats your colo(U)r this season?

searching...

Its not just about the place after all.
It surely is about the people...
Its not the same any more!

I do not know where I wanna be right now
I do not know what I wanna do!

I do know that there is more than one place I wanna be at one time!
I do wish for another me!

Why do i always wanna be somewhere else?

Ah Finally...

It is that Sunday morning when the rain gods have finally blessed and the monsoon's here hopefully to stay

I love the feeling of getting up to a cloudy sky and the smell of wet earth!!!

The whole city just seemed to liven up last afternoon when dark clouds and thunder were followed by few heavy showers.

It took me back to the days when getting wet in the first rain was a ritual for us. One shower and all the kids in the building would be down jumping and running around in that dirty ‘chikhal’… wonder what fun it was!

This used to happen just about a couple of weeks before the schools would reopen… thats like in the 1st week of June. And now we are praying for the rains in almost the third week of June… how I miss the rains…also for those nice heavy rainy days when one couldnt make it to school thanks to flooded roads and slow paced trains.

Hey I saw ‘Batman Begins’ yesterday. I liked the movie. Just thought there were a few assumptions and abrupt jumps in the sequence for a movie based on the birth of Batman- the legend

I Am ExTREMeLy IrRITaTED RiGhT NoW !!!

Of cutting chai and college

…as the title goes its not so much about the cutting chai, or the number of year spent in college. It more about the endless battle between where academics want to take us and where the profession is heading. At a point almost wanting to conclude a wrong career choice n feeling absolutely defeated in this rutt of what is called ‘practice’ I finally feel a little better to see some more people sailing in the same boat. What is inspiring though is a ray of hope ; a lesson learnt that small steps can surely make a change.

Prof. Upasani, a teacher who I shall never forget for having shaped a lot of my thinking and outlook towards the profession and academics. A conversation with him today brought back to me that it is not about running away as much as being a part of the system and creating a path by being a part of it.

A plethora of insensitive people striding through the glory of money and fame reigning at the expense of superficiality. A handful pedagogical voices trying to make a difference- fading away in the struggle to be heard. There has to be a mid- way!!!

At this juncture comes a perfect gift from a friend who has never failed to put ‘that smile’ on my face. A book –Bombay Meri Jaan –writings on Mumbai; and rightly so ; this is the place I know the most; I belong to and shall come back to give it my share.

Incidentally on my last birthday he gifted me ‘The Inscrutable Americans’- apt for the times then and now a book on Mumbai- at a time when I was beginning to feel choked in the city (wrongly so) that defines me the most.

Thanks a lot– it surely is a dear friendship ‘incorruptible’ by time and space – a fresh as the ‘wonderwall’

Parineeta

Based in Calcutta of the 60s the movie with its treatment and detail sort of begins to feel like a good film only to realize towards the end, just like in Devdas, the director is carried away to make a ‘Bollywood’ film taking glamour and drama to unnecessary unconvincing levels.

The treatment surely makes it worth watching once.

I liked Saif Ali Khan and Divya Balan; she fits the role well But a complete disaster is Sanjay Dutt who seems more like the father of the girl he is suppose to marry. I don’t know why he acts at all!!!

Now I wanna see Mr. And Mrs. Smith. Heard the movie is ordinary but who cares, Brad Pitt is a good sight to look at irrespective of anything else in the movie.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

this one goes to the 10 of us at J.J

So an extended birthday... all of us met at this pub called Shooters, bandra ( i liked the place)

but sadly when i say all its no more the 10 of us... max it goes to is 6 at a time including the better halves!!!

so i had a good time today: the people present: jude, namu, shamli, himanshee,myself & asawari n sumeet( the married couple: met them after exactly a year) n thats why the blog!

A birthday blog

Today is the day when I join archit, charita, namita, shamli, chinar, jammy, harry, bugger boy in the 25+ club ( sorry if anyone else also turned 25 this yr .. prob i just dunno ur age then ;)

Single in Mumbai on my birthday for the first time in 9 years was synonymous to being at home at midnight on 13th june without a surprise for the first time in 9 years

didnt like the feeling at all, especially after last year's midnight bash;
I miss u so much gav.

the day began slow with phone calls pouring in and another day at work...

It livened up only when charita gave me a surprise and came down from Pune to wish me!!!

A dinner with family at 'jewel of india' is what the plan is all about for the evening.

My Best gift this year till now: Contradiction.... by Calvin Klein !!!

it is the sea after all

never ever has it failed to be my companion..a day of restlessness; a thousand thoughts running through my head; nothing seems to fall in place; a thousand things i just dont understand; a feeling of loneliness; a longing for something i cannot get; no answers..


several times have I found myself at this juncture... that when the sea is where I find MYSELF!!!

Random thoughts

Throughly bored at work this afternoon so just thought ill make an attempt at blogging which is gettin infrequent by the day- not able to get my self to blog.

Nothing to write about either.

Life has been pretty slow since the 2nd June ...any guesses why?

I saw Bunty aur Bubli again... i simply loved the movie ( minus the last half hour ofcourse)... blame it on Abhishek Bachan or the colors in the film or the humor or the story or anything or like chari says "u seem to like every thing overly desi these days". I shall go on to say that they should make a sequel and call it
"BUNTY_BUBLI aur PAPPU"...wasnt tht hilarious?
my fav part of the movie: that Qawalli whcih stars ash amitabh and abhishek...
u know i liked the music too... am sure its gonna be on my list to play online on raaga.com once i go back to the US

this morning I 'encountered' a very strange place...happened to accompany someone to a marraige bureau and it was such a scary site with parents n prospectives sitting and n literraly taking notes in fat books from files filed with a form/a photo/ a patrika per applicant n it was as quiet as a doctor's dispensary!!! a room of 10ftx14ft was occupied by atleast 25 people!!!

Time to get back to work!

AHH!! Yes... my birthday is just around the corner!!!

A void that we leave behind

After leaving home to study last year I assumed without any doubt that the most troubled soul in this situation would be myself... a person having left home on my own and carrying the loneliness of the whole world. people who have seen me closely both in mumbai and ann arbor know how diffiuclt it was for me to get into the groove of a completely new setting... and in my self-involvement I never thought of what I had left behind

but this time around two people closest to me...chari and gav have set out for their new lives leaving me in Mumbai and thats when I realise what 'leaving behind a void' means.

This one goes to our parents who so long for us and feel nothing but an absolute emptiness once we are walking the paths of our lives ...

Just a realisation that its not easy for the person you leave behind in the same setting... along side that, is left behind great emptiness which can never be filled

a new war?

well 8 months is a short time to find a remarkable change in a city..nothing in mumbai seems to be drastically different but an interesting new game seems to be the 'war of the print media'. The newsreader in Mumbai has almost been loyal to the Times of India...but this might just change soon... on coming down this time I came across an all new competition where a couple of newspapers which are not based in bombay viz. the hindustan times and dainik bhaskar are on the roll with extremely strong add campaigns and extablishment strategies to set base in Mumbai - a new city for these papers.
The bottom line being Mumbai still continues to be "the" place where the "money" lies...
A new campaign floating all over the streets of mumbai is what they have named the "DNA"- it stands for "daily new and analysis". the strategy here is that they have a market survey such that the newspaper shall be put forth in a way the masses want it to be...srong statements giving the reader the most important position in the paper making him the creator of the format and the content... times answer to this was a new paper on the lines of the look sported by mid- day apparently...

another thing which caught my eye in mumbai was this fleet of new international airlines which offer extremely cheap airfares suddenly seem to be hovering in the skies of mumbai..

the two listed above are simply a couple of examples...

the point being the city still continues to lure... amidst signs of saturation and chaos it still surely stands out was above the rest as the land of oppurtunities and money!!!

Blur

...is all I can see around me
amidst the crowd the chaos the excitement
a bright white spot shining in the distance...
a closer look and its "the blur"
deep down inside,
several doors but none showing the way
several darkspots jsut adding to the haze

all i ask for is that one door...
to let me break through this BLUR

happenings in Mumbai

Its amazing how much one gets done when in India...

like this morning i went to khar for some boring jewellery shopping ... for those who know me and my fetish for junk jewellery would probalby be surprised but its true, n now i accept it for good.. i so hate that gold jewellery conventional shopping spree where moms take u to pick something and make u ponder for hours as to whether its nice n worth it... i dont like gold jewellery!!!



my next stop at home to eat some dirty oily indian chinese..from a local prabhadevi joint called "home deli", the no. of times gav n i have eaten there is not even funny... n i really enjoyed tht bit today


in the evening i went to shop - but in vain. didnt like any sarees at nalli... tried the fashion section- Quorum in Phoenix mills... mogra,krishna murti,AND,JVP... nothing seemed to work.either no good stuff or too expensive... wht i liked was a ritu kumar outfit but was far from fitting my pocket...


the next stop for the evening was at malad...dinner at my uncles place..yummm food!!!!

n then at 1 am in the night suddenly i find myself at orchid near the airport at their karako bar...

Its unbelievable how much u can do in bombay in just one day... but then yest my second day i felt so jet lagged n sleepy tht couldnt get myself out of the house only at 4pm ...once again to shop in vain.. i checked out kala niketan, benzer, roopam, queens, some boutique at maker towers... n i didnt like anything... hope for some hope today!!!

Back in Mumbai

so here i am.. back home in my favorite city... Mumbai!!! Incidently my journey this time roudn spanned across three of my favorite cities...ann arbor(the cozy little town i love so much)- chicago(it never fails to amaze me) and then mumbai(how i miss the chaos)

My journey was good..didnt do anything besides eatign and sleeping:) and reading...

The day before in ann arbor was bad..hectic...with too many things to take care off.. the high light thou was the barbeque at gallop park byt the huron river and the nice mystery incident of a little trek to look for our ball which went into the river( thou people claim that i am not made for trekkin n stuff i dont believe so)

So today its time for shoppin... I still aint sure what I want to wear for the wedding...will probably hit the stores n decide...